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Helena Variations

Introduction

One March afternoon in 1896 the twenty-eight-year-old Helena von Schweitzer called to have tea with an old lady. There was a third guest: ‘His head was leonine, with its massive formation and tawny colouring, and his eyes were remarkable, scintillating with vivid life, windows to an intense inner existence. He was massive in build also, and golden-bearded at a time when all the fashionable men-about-town were moustachioed with monotonous regularity.’ Thus Granville Bantock’s future wife later remembered how she first met her husband. She went on to describe his polymath interests: ‘The talk was as unconventional as the surroundings were prosaic. It fell on the ears of one listener like the sound of water on a parched land. Science, literature, art and travel were discussed in a broad-minded spirit, very foreign to that period of many taboos. The hostess drew the shy listener into the conversation, and at the end of this miniature symposium, she found herself committed to the task of writing thirty-six lyrics, to be set to music by the young composer, for such he was’ … ‘On a slip of paper he sketched out his scheme for a series of thirty-six Songs of the East, each set of six to be devoted to an oriental country. He would provide books on the subject, further discussion was arranged for the following week, and the whole was completed with tornado-like swiftness which soon became familiar.’

They were married in 1898, and the following year he wrote Helena, variations on a theme derived from the initials of his wife’s name (HFB: in German musical notation, B natural, F, B flat). The piano score is dated 27 October 1899; Granville and Helena were both thirty-one. In less than a year the music was published by Breitkopf & Härtel. Printed on the flyleaf the composer wrote: ‘Dearest Wife! Accept these little Variations with all my heart’s love. They are intended as an expression of my thoughts and reflections on some of your moods during a wearisome absence from each other.’

Elgar’s Enigma Variations had been first performed in London on 19 June 1899 and created a great stir. Bantock had invited Elgar to conduct a concert with his orchestra at New Brighton, and soon afterwards Edward and Alice Elgar (not yet Lady Elgar) came to stay; Elgar’s wife would have been fifty. Helena Bantock noted with astonishment ‘no less than seven hot water bottles being filled for his bed, on the occasion of Elgar complaining of a slight chill’. On 16 July Elgar conducted the concert, including Enigma, and one cannot imagine Bantock being other than thrilled. It seems highly probable that Bantock then impulsively set out to write his own variations, albeit based Pauline-like on his wife’s moods rather than his various friends. It was his first orchestral work in his mature style. Could it be that in emulating Elgar by ending in high spirits it was not only Helena he was celebrating in the Finale. First performed in Antwerp on 21 February 1900 where Bantock had been asked to conduct a concert of British music, the Variations received their first British performance, conducted by the composer, on 25 March in the Philharmonic Hall Liverpool.

Recordings

'Bantock's prodigious output as a composer … rested in the long grass for decades until Vernon Handley's Hyperion recordings revealed the many qu ...'What an achievement! Twenty-one late-romantic orchestral works in one box at mid-price or better. Bantock's lavish romanticism is superbly served by ...» More

'Outstanding. A sumptuous wallow for all unashamed Romantics … full marks, Hyperion—now we can all wallow once more. Worth the price for the sump ...'Just as good as its predecessors. Roundly recommended' (Fanfare, USA)» More